Noam Sheizaf - +972 - As Prof. Carmi noted, the attack is not aimed only against this department or against this university. The main function of the Council for Higher Education is to provide budgets for universities. In an era of budget cuts, who will want to further annoy this government-appointed council? What will become of professors and researchers who hold left-wing or critical options, and whose contracts are up for renewal or evaluation? Will Im Tirzu now become the standard-bearer in academic discourse?

Yitzhak Benhorin -Y-net - Obama expressed `understanding` for the Israeli PM`s `insistence` on preventing Iran from becoming nuclear. However, he stressed that on matters relating to American national security he would do solely `what`s right for the American people` and dismissed as `background noise` Netanyahu`s demands that the US face Iran with `red lines`.

Ma`an News Agency -
"At least 18 Palestinians were killed Thursday and their bodies displayed publicly in Damascus, PLO officials in the capital`s largest refugee camp said. The PLO office in Yarmouk said the Syrian regime "committed a massacre" against Palestinians in the camp. Bodies were found mutilated and charred, it said." ca

Ibrahim Farouk -
Al Ahram Weekly
" The idea should be, Jabli suggested, to build on the desire of the Sinai tribes to participate in ensuring the security of the peninsula and to secure it against any threats or dangers. However, such a plan is absent from the Sinai development portfolio that has been made a priority by the post-revolutionary government in Egypt." ca

Activestills Haggai MatarMairav ZonszeinAmi KaufmanDahlia ScheindlinLarry DerfnerRoi MaorMya GuarnieriYossi GurvitzNoam SheizafAziz Abu SarahRoee RuttenbergYuval Ben-AmiLisa GoldmanDimi ReiderOmar RahmanOri J. Lenkinski+972 Blog+972 Resources
About
Noam Sheizaf -
+972
"Im Tirzu, the most well-known of the three organizations, and the one to enjoy the support of prominent Likud members and ministers, has put a special emphasis on Ben-Gurion University. Three years ago, Im Tirzu threatened President Carmi “to scare off donors” if the university did not get rid of its left-wing faculty members. Later, the group distributed posters suggesting that faculty members in the Department of Politics and Government supported the 2001 lynch of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah – a blood libel without a shred of evidence behind it.One of Im Tirzu’s prominent supporters is Education Minister Gidon Sa’ar (Likud). " ca

Charlotte Silver -
The Electronic Intifada -
"Not having a high school is illegal and constitutes a breach of the
state’s duty to provide education equally for all citizens; it violates
constitutional rights of the pupils, their right to equality, dignity
and mainly education." - id

Yoav Kapshuk -
+972 -
"We should ask ourselves whether the collapse of Oslo indicates that this
area cannot be divided, or whether partition is actually the only way to
achieve reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians." - id

Ramat Gan Committee of Baghdadi Jews - We most sincerely thank the Israeli government for confirming our status as refugees following a rapid, 62-year-long evaluation of our documents. Now it remains to be investigated if it is true that in 1950 Israeli PM David Ben-Gurion secretly authorized Iraqi PM Nuri as-Said to take possession of the property and assets of Iraqi Jewry provided the Jews themselves were sent to Israel. Also should be investigated is whether the Israeli Mossad was involved in bombing the Masouda Shem-Tov Synagogue in Baghdad, so as to frighten Iraqi Jew and make them flee to Israel.

Roi Kais - Al-Sharq Al-Awsat/Y-net - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering unilaterally declaring the Oslo Accords, as well as the economic and security agreements derived from the treaty, null and void. This might take place following the UN General Assembly session where Palestinians are expected to ask for recognition as a state.

Alex Kane -
Mondoweiss
"The leader of the organization reportedly behind the anti-Muslim film sparking angry protests in the Middle East spoke at a rally opposing the Park 51 Islamic center in lower Manhattan last year. That rally, on September 11, 2010, was organized by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, two leading Islamophobic activists and bloggers in the U.S." ca

Lisa Goldman
+972
"But then something interesting happened. Yesterday, a prominent U.S. senator and two important journalists made highly critical remarks about Netanyahu. The blunt wording is almost unprecedented in mainstream American discourse." ca

Haidar Eid -
AlAhram Weekly
"The democratic alternative is the one that reflects the collective will of the Palestinian people. This alternative lies in elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC) after reconstructing the PLO on the basis of true democracy to ensure the genuine representation of all national and Islamist factions. PNC elections would ensure the representation of the Diaspora away from the mentality of a false independence cultivated under an oppressive occupier. These elections could bring the Palestinian people closer to self-determination, as defined by international law, while restoring their legitimate right to multiple forms of resistance." ca

Editorial -
Haaretz -
"A situation in which an academic department and a renowned university
are forced to battle against a body meant to represent it should disturb
anyone who is concerned with higher education and academic freedom." -
id

Alison Weir - CounterPunch - "But it’s not all bad news. The reality is that at least half the delegates at this extremely mainstream [Democratic National] convention – full of party loyalists who usually toe the party line – did not go along with the Israel Lobby agenda. And while videos of the event focused almost entirely on close-ups of dissenters of Arab ethnicity, suggesting that this was an ethnic position, the vast majority of those opposed to the amendment had no such ethnic connection and were from all over the United States"

Jinjirrie -
KADAITCHA
"Palestinian directors have now pulled out of the project – they were unaware of the presence of the Israeli production company, nor of backing from the Jerusalem Film Fund, which is in turn funded by the Jerusalem Development Authority. Current activities of the JDA include expropriating Palestinian land in East Jerusalem for parks. The JDA received “40 million NIS in 2005 to develop green spaces around the Old City of Jerusalem”." ca

Mona El-Nahhas -
Al-Ahram Weekly
"Last Thursday`s court ruling that ordered the jailing of Afifi had stirred angry reactions among journalists and intellectuals in Egypt, with dozens protesting in Cairo last Thursday night and demanding the freedom of the press. President Mohamed Mursi issued a decree prohibiting the jailing of journalists pending trial on charges relating to their professional activities on 23 August." ca

Ma`an News Agency -
"Hisham al-Rakh was shot several times Wednesday by unidentified gunmen while driving in a mountainous area near the Jenin refugee camp, in the second high-profile murder of the year in the area.
In early May, gunmen opened fire on the home of late governor Qaddura Musa, leading to a heart attack that killed him while in pursuit of the suspected gunmen." ca

Gideon Levy -
Haaretz -
"The most moral army in the world stands armed over 20 bereft African
migrants imprisoned for a week already between the fences of Israel`s
southern border, and this army`s soldiers are given the diabolical order
to provide them water, but only "as little as possible." The most moral
army in the world, of the Middle East`s only democracy, does not give
them food." - id

Rina Bassist -
Ynet -
"The SA Zionist Federation distributed stickers saying "Proudly made in
Israel." Israel`s ambassador to South Africa, Dov Segev-Steinberg, was
seen at the event carrying one of those stickers on his dash." - id

Rona Moran and Miryam Wijler -
+972 -
"Regavim does not deal with settling the land with Jewish Israelis, but
rather with the expulsion of the Palestinian population on both sides of
the Green Line." - id

Donald Macintyre - The Independent - “[Israel Hayom, the right-wing free] paper survived an unsuccessful attempt in 2009 by Knesset members to block majority newspaper ownership by foreigners. An unnamed Yedhiot Ahronot executive was recently quoted in the business daily Globes saying: ‘Adelson has simply brought ruin to the Israeli newspaper market, and the Israeli politicians who benefit from its flattering coverage have allowed this unprecedented phenomenon to occur’"